Empathy

Below, I try to figure out how to think in a way that is both political and kind.  It’s an awkward attempt, but I’m sharing because it helps me get on little clearer on the subject.

I’m often trying to be less judgmental, yet obviously, judgements are a necessary part of life.  As a former teacher, I’ve been a professional judge.  Actually, evaluation rather than judgement may be a better term.  Recently, I remarked to a friend that I’d like to have more empathy for politicians I disagree with.  He shrugged and said, “Why bother?  It won’t change anything.”  However, I have a feeling it will change something if only by bringing a little more peace to my heart.  But my judgements get in the way of empathy. 

          

As I was reflecting on this issue, I came across Ken Wilber’s book One Taste.  One section speaks to this issue.   He reminds us that we need to judge or evaluate; but we can still have empathy.  He uses ideas from development theories to explain.  Most of us are familiar with Piaget and his developmental paradigm for children (sensorimotor, preoperational, and so on).  Wilber goes on to study developmental theories about adults using a number of scholars.  In this piece he uses the paradigm of egocentric, ethnocentric, and world-centric stages.  The ethnocentric stage transcends and includes egocentric; world-centric transcends and includes ethnocentric. I like to believe I’m world-centric, and I get annoyed by ethnocentric or what I call tribal politicians.

Political dialogue in the United States and the world seems to be a struggle between the developmental stages though it can be complex and confusing.  Just because I’m world-centric doesn’t mean I don’t value my own my tribe.  But I want them protected without hurting anyone outside my group.  Sometimes, while the world-centrists are trying to figure it all out, they get killed by the egocentric and the ethnocentric.

The present presidential elections are a war of words.  When I listen to politicians whom I consider to have peaked at ethnocentric, I tend to get judgmental.  Well, judgmental is okay, but with that, I want to include true empathy.  I am helped in doing that by remembering a world-centric view encompasses the ethnocentric/tribal view which values caring for and protecting one’s community and one’s loved ones.  I have empathy for that.  

Wilber says, some in the egocentric and ethnocentric stages, such as Hitler and mass shooters exhibit a pathological version of their developmental stage.  I’m okay not having empathy for Hitler, but I have some for these young shooters though I deplore their actions.  Right now, the task is having empathy for presidential candidates.